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Duty of care

This article outlines the duty of care that importers and brokers of waste must adhere to when dealing with waste movements.

Definition of duty of care

The basis of duty of care is that any person who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste, or as a broker, has control of such waste, must take all measures applicable to him/her in that capacity as are reasonable in the circumstances to:

prevent the deposit of controlled waste on land except under the terms of a waste management authorisation

prevent the escape of waste from his/her control, or that of any other person

secure that any transfer of waste is only to an authorised person

be accompanied by a description adequate to help any subsequent holder avoid breaching the duty

In practice the legislation requires all producers, carriers and managers of waste to put in place a system of transfer notes in order to document waste movements. For details of the requirements see:

Electronic Duty of Care (edoc)

A new electronic system for managing waste transfers has been launched across the UK.

Edoc (Electronic Duty of Care) is a free online portal designed to give businesses an alternative to current paper-based Waste Transfers Notes (WTNs).

How does it work?

Edoc allows businesses to create Waste Transfer Notes electronically. All data is stored online, which means companies can easily search and retrieve information, and run data reports for business planning and waste and resource management.

Why use edoc?

Some of the system’s key benefits allow businesses to:

create, review, edit, sign, store and share WTNs online

receive automatic email notifications when there is an action for your attention

see a log of actions performed on a WTN, by whom and when

search and retrieve WTNs quickly and easily

create downloadable business reports on the waste transfers they have been involved in and on the wider picture of waste transfers recorded on edoc

use an optional tracking system to see the fate of their waste

create a season ticket with the option to include multiple waste types, containers and collection frequencies

Who’s behind it?

Edoc has been developed by the UK Environmental Regulators in partnership with the waste sector and UK government bodies.